States' rights. For most CityBeat readers who are too young to remember it, the phrase sounds vague and innocuous, but it's a code word frequently used throughout the 1950s and '60s when Southern states resisted federal efforts aimed at ending deep-seated racist policies. Amazingly, the current Tea Party movement has revived the mantle of states' rights as its latest rallying cry.

Is David Fincher's film a veiled allegory for America under George W. Bush?

Benjamin is like an unfunny Seinfeld character: no lessons learned. Or like George W. Bush? I've been wondering if this film can be read as a veiled allegory (or epitaph) for America under the vacuous Bush.

As the Bushes clear out of the White House and the Obamas move in, it's easy to get caught up in the euphoria of a new era dawning. But if President Obama truly wants to bring about real change in America, as he's long promised, he needs to address the helplessness so many of us feel about our lives and the world around us. Applying the nation's laws to everyone (including CEOs, investment bankers and ex-presidents and vice presidents) would be a good start.

Curtis Sittenfeld (Random House)

Earlier this year, I went to my cousin's wedding. It was a seriously Republican crowd. The only Democrat I met all weekend used to babysit the Bush twins. At a bridal luncheon given by a friend of the family well into her sixties, I was surprised to find a copy of Cincinnati native Curtis Sittenfeld's Prep. I was even more surprised to hear the hostess had read and enjoyed it.

Really, he's not as bad as you think. As if they could possibly pull the wool over a jaded publics eyes one more time, many of George W. Bush's advisers and friends have been in full spin mode the past few weeks trying to convince us that his presidency wasn't nearly as disastrous as most think.

A local judge put the smack down last week after a defendant mumbled that it was bullshit that he'd have to stay in jail until his court date. Hamilton County Common Pleas Judge Robert Ruehlman thought that an alleged Northside Taliband gang member saying "bullshit" in his courtroom was actually bullshit itself, so he sentenced him to six months.

Depictions of George W. Bush have flooded film and TV in recent years

President Bush leaves office in January with a reputation secure as one of America's worst and least popular presidents. Movies and TV shows had his number from the beginning. He's been seen as a kind of lovable but dimwitted buffoon in "That's My Bush."

There are drawbacks to living in a battleground state during election season, and The Enquirer today detailed one of the big negatives that comes with the consideration that politicians pretend to have for us: This shit costs us money!